Conservative activists see Paul, Rubio as favorites

Sunday

Mar 17, 2013 at 12:01 AMMar 17, 2013 at 2:00 PM

OXON HILL, Md. - The auditions have begun. Just two months into President Barack Obama's second term, Republican leaders are lining up to diagnose the GOP's ills while courting party activists - all with an eye on greater political ambitions.

OXON HILL, Md. — The auditions have begun.

Just two months into President Barack Obama’s second term, Republican leaders are lining up to diagnose the GOP’s ills while courting party activists — all with an eye on greater political ambitions.

They have danced around questions about their White House aspirations, but the die-hard conservatives are already picking favorites in what could be a crowded Republican presidential primary in 2016.

Thousands of activists who packed into suburban Washington’s national conservative summit gave Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul a narrow victory over Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in their informal presidential-preference poll. Paul had 25 percent of the vote and Rubio 23 percent. Former Pennsyl-vania Sen. Rick Santorum was third with 8 percent.

The freshman senators topped a pool of nearly two dozen governors and elected officials who paraded across the stage for three days. There were passionate calls for party unity, as the party’s old guard and a new generation of leaders clashed over the future of the Republican Party.

First-term Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who placed sixth in the straw poll, yesterday encouraged Republicans to focus on middle-class concerns. “We need to be relevant,” he said.Later in the day, the party’s 2008 vice presidential nominee, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, mixed anti-Obama rhetoric with calls for a more-inclusive GOP: “We must leave no American behind,” she said.

And former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a 2012 presidential contender, charged that GOP leadership “is as mired in the past and mired in stupidity as it was in 1976.”

But the ballroom stage was emblazoned with the words “America’s Future: The Next Generation of Conservatives,” making clear the party’s interest in showcasing a new wave of talent. The gathering evoked the ending of one period and the beginning of another.

Several Republicans are jockeying for leadership roles.

Last week, Paul insisted on a new direction in Republican politics. “The GOP of old has grown stale and moss-covered,” he said.The straw-poll victory offers little more than bragging rights for Paul, who is popular with the younger generation of libertarian-minded conservatives who packed the conference in suburban Washington. Nearly 3,000 people participated in the online survey, and more than half were younger than 26.

Rubio drew thunderous applause by proclaiming that the Republican Party doesn’t need any new ideas: “There is an idea. The idea is called America, and it still works,” he said in a speech aimed squarely at middle-class voters.

Walker thrilled activists yesterday by declaring: “In America, we believe in the people and not in the government.”

“It is precisely why, in America, we take a day off and celebrate the Fourth of July and not the 15th of April,” he said.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, perhaps the highest-profile establishment figure as the son and brother of presidents, held out the prospect of the nation’s greatest century if the GOP evolves into the party of “inclusion and acceptance.”